'This is cruelty': Border Patrol rescues infant and toddler who had been abandoned in the desert

A four-month-old baby and an 18-month-old toddler were rescued after being abandoned in the desert by smugglers, according to John R. Modlin, chief patrol agent of the U.S. Border Patrol's Tuscon Sector.

"Yesterday smugglers left an infant and a toddler in the Sonoran Desert to die. This is cruelty. And it is gut-wrenching," Modlin tweeted.

He noted that while the baby was unresponsive, she was successfully revived. "The heartlessness of smugglers cannot be underestimated," he declared.

Fox 10 Phoenix reported that according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an agent was notified by an arrested migrant group that the youths were west of the Lukeville port of entry on the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The Associated Press reported that a migrant within a group of individuals who had been arrested told an agent about the kids' whereabouts.

Both outlets noted that the baby and the toddler were taken to a hospital and then returned to Border Patrol custody.

The U.S. continues to see massive numbers of migrants pouring across its southern border, a problem that persists month after month.

"So far this year, Tucson Sector has seen a 12% increase in Unaccompanied Children being smuggled across the border over fiscal year 2021 and a 234% increase over fiscal year 2020," CBP noted, according to Fox 10 Phoenix.

The Pentagon has rebuffed Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's requests for the D.C. National Guard to be deployed in order to help the city cope with an influx of migrants — the Republican governors of Texas and Arizona have bused migrants to the nation's capital city, though the trips are undertaken voluntarily.

On Monday, Bowser tweeted, "we will continue fighting for DC statehood so that, in the future, when the Mayor of DC says that we need the support of the DC National Guard, she has the ability to deploy the Guard."